


Clouded Glass and Administrative Darkness

by TopHat



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 00:26:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18789283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopHat/pseuds/TopHat





	Clouded Glass and Administrative Darkness

There were too many things wrong with Emily Piggot to fix. So Sophia didn’t try.

“So?” the Director asked, appraising the teen in front of her. Short and stocky, with ropey muscles barely hidden by the layers of armor that almost didn’t get past Youth Guard. Diamondeye still had her helmet on, a concession that Sophia had given her on the condition that Emily would take it off around her teammates. Face to face contact was important, more so for people who needed friends. The jury was still out on the efficacy of that deal, but handling incipient felons was always easier when said felons felt more comfortable rather than less.

Not too comfortable though, which was why this conversation was taking place.

The Ward sat upright and stared straight ahead, just barely not looking Sophia in the eye. Dimondeye’s full-face mosaic of plexiglass had been tested again and again for inscrutability, and beyond that Sophia knew that she kept a balaclava on underneath it. A misery in the summer, but the paranoia was the Ward’s prerogative. “I wrote my report. All relevant details are contained within those pages.”

Sophia’s lips tightened a fraction. “The report says that you severed several of Cricket’s major muscle groups, force well above what you’re permitted to use in all but the most dire situations. It also said that you initiated the engagement, which in and of itself is a gross breach of protocol. Aegis’s report indicated that you ignored multiple opportunities to disengage, and that you pursued even when it placed more civilians in danger.”

“And how many more would be in danger if Cricket was roaming free?” Diamondeye said, infuriatingly still and calm. Sophia would’ve admired her composure if it also didn’t mean that the Ward completely didn’t understand the issue with her actions. “Preventing a known murderer from slipping free seems like a dire situation.”

“Preventing known murderers from seeking revenge on Wards saves more lives,” Sophia said, drumming her fingers on her desk, trying to burn off a little energy. She’d fallen behind the privates in fitness, as much a symptom of age as her position, but the wind had never quite left her muscles. “Every time you break skin, it erodes a little more of the protection you receive because of your age. Every time you stick your head out, it makes the urge to lop it off a little stronger. More to the point, what you do reflects on every Ward in the country. How many broken bones and potential fatalities among your peers is worth the incarceration of one pit fighter?”

“All of them,” Diamondeye said simply.

Sophia’s fingers paused.

“We agree to fight,” Diamondeye pressed. “We fight for every hour in the field, volunteer for it. Civvies don’t. At the end of the day fewer powers on the streets is better for everyone, and if that means maybe dying—”

“You are here by barred from patrols indefinitely,” Sophia said quietly, the words cutting through the air like glass.

Diamondeye took the command silently.

“You are not allowed to dictate a militant stance against United States citizens that may result in crippling or fatal injuries,” Sophia continued, cold fire coursing through her veins, begging to be let out. “You are not at the age where you are permitted to enlist in the armed forces, and the Wards program is not an excuse for your to work in the business of violence. Do not treat it as such. And you sure as hell are not allowed to decide that your teammates are expendable because you hate villains.”

Diamondeye stood up, sending the chair crashing to the ground. Silvery force fields spiraled into existence around her, razor-sharp and dangerous. “I’m leaving them to die—”

“But you are saying that you value their lives less than those of Nazis!” Sophia shouted back, standing up after her. She had more than a few inches on the girl, and unlike Emily knew how to intimidate. “You want blood? Fine. Get blood. Wait until you turn eighteen, head up to DC, and tell them you want to join the actual military! They’ll find something for you to kill. If you don’t like taking orders, head over to Africa and throw yourself into the first border skirmish you come across! Maybe you’ll even live long enough to hold territory and get eaten by the warlord of the week. But if you really can’t stand the idea of focusing on keeping people alive instead of plunging the city into a war, then by all means!” She jabbed her finger towards the back of her office, eyes hard, pointedly ignoring the now sword-sized weapons pointed at her. “The exit is that way.”

Sophia knew capes. She knew them in a way that professional musicians knew music, or how scholars of art knew painters. Each was different, a fresh horror inflicted upon a human being which left them mentally damaged and armed with weapons fit to level buildings. She’d met parahumans who’d more or less settled down, who’d learned how to do something other than fight, but they were the exceptions rather than the rule. Generally speaking, every cape was unstable until proven otherwise.

That said, there were trends between each lunatic, and long experience taught Sophia well. She never left arguments with Tinkers unfinished, never tried to browbeat Brutes, and generally worked around the patterns she had learned to recognized. She mostly didn’t think too hard about the trauma she was exploiting, partially out of respect for the parahuman’s agency and partially because she didn’t need to, but the social tools were always there in the back of her mind in the case of an emergency.

Emergencies like when a terrifyingly powerful Shaker decided to draw their weapon in close quarters.

Sophia leaned forward a little more, eyes narrowed at her best guess for where Diamondeye’s own pupils would be, and whispered, “Just know that if you head out that door, you do it alone. You don’t get paid, you don’t get special armor, and you don’t get back up. We won’t leave you to die because we’re not bloodthirsty teenagers with a chip in our shoulder the size of the Boardwalk, but you won’t get the same protection a Ward will. You will be trading power for freedom, and the history of humanity is a testament to the importance of doing the opposite.” Sophia sat back down, eyes still locked onto Diamondeye’s mask. “Think long and hard about that call, Emily. ”

For a long moment the air between them stood still, charged with menace on one side and terror backed by blades of light on the other.

Then the blades went away, dissolving into tiny sparks of light. Diamondeye dropped in place, barely staying upright, her head bowed and her fists loosened. Sophia’s heart slowed a little. Just a little though.

“I will consider my response more thoroughly, ma’am,” she said quietly, turning around and heading for the door.

Sophia watched her go, then sagged with relief when the latch clicked shut.

“Why are parahumans so batshit insane?” she muttered to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose. After allowing herself to mope in self-pity for a full thirty seconds, Sophia spun around and looked out over the city.

Instead of seeing a teeming metropolis, Sophia saw an ecosystem. Herd animals went about their nine to five lives, parasites and scavengers picked off the weak and vulnerable out of sight, and half a dozen different types of predators roamed around the edges and hide behind masks. It was a complex society, absurdly so, but the beauty of science was taking the impossible to understand and creating a rough enough sketch to get something like a prediction.

Parahumans, for all their power, changed precisely nothing.

Sophia felt the fury leave her, draining away at the sight of the city. Maybe parahumans outgunned normal humans too profoundly to be reined in. Maybe it was a cruel, savage world without morality. Maybe trying to herd people with serious issues and the power to exercise their frustration and hate on the world was an inherently doomed task. There were certainly days that made Sophia feel like she was just spinning her wheels.

On the other hand, humans had adapted past worse. And Sophia was a human.

She spent another minute looking out at her responsibility, then turned back to her computer.

There was work to be done.


End file.
